About a month ago, I decided to blow the dust off my JVC camcorder and get it ready for the arrival of BabyLockTM. Don’t get me wrong, I am not one of those expectant Dads who ends up making a documentary from the business end, as it were. I just wanted to refamiliarise myself with the camera so I could capture some footage of the newborn. I’d had the camera for about two years and not had much use from it. The Ashbory Bass video that I made for this site was created using it, but the rest of my vids for YouTube were made using a small webcam. So you can imagine that I was royally pissed off when I discovered that the camera had developed a fault and refused to work, despite being underused and stored in a cupboard. I knew the thing was kaput and it wasn’t worth trying to get it repaired because I bought it cheap in a sale. I normally buy more expensive electronic equipment but in this instance I thought I’d grab myself a bargain. Big mistake. I won’t do that again, so said knackered camera ended up in the bin.
So I was really cheesed off with having my gear pack up on me for no good reason. I don’t mind something dying through overuse or a schoolboy error, but the camera had practically seen around an hour’s shooting action. This time The Missus insisted I buy a new camera and so I had a look around. I vowed not to buy another cheap JVC, so I plumped for a Canon HV10, which boasts High-Definition footage on standard Mini-DV tapes, which was handy as I still wanted to access my old tapes I’d made. I got a decent web price on it and it arrived last week. I’ve been messing around with it since and here’s a very short HD clip of Mr Fox appearing on the green opposite Chez Lock and disappearing. It was all over quick and I was lucky to catch him in the afternoon sunshine. The clip was also taken through a glass window at a considerable distance so don’t expect the footage to be so HD sharp it will cut your eyeballs.
Direct download: CLICK HERE